Development, Practice and Effects of Teaching Materials for Understanding Issues of Disposal of High-Level Radioactive Waste

Abstract

Japan is currently facing the problem of disposing of high levels of radioactive waste. This waste must be disposed of regardless of future policies for nuclear power. As this task will take a long time, we should convey our knowledge to future generations. In this study, we developed teaching materials to promote students’ understanding of high-level radioactive waste disposal and to personalize these issues. To accomplish the latter objective, we included exercises on decision-making processes and discussions. We implemented these materials with ninth graders and analyzed their effects, including changes in students’ opinions. The results are as follows: 1) Based on the results of students’ self-evaluations, we assume that the material was effective for ninth graders, despite the challenging content level, 2) for a task demanding decision-making, a series of operations, including determining opinions at first and subsequently reconstructing them through discussions, was important to personalize the contents, and 3) the introduction of discussions to the decision-making process helped each student to take responsibility for their opinions and to personalize them. It also effectively improved students’ decision-making qualities by obtaining each other’s viewpoints and thinking from multifaceted perspectives.